I am glad the Saints won season opener on Sunday against the AtlFal and for the Saints 's fans there in the SD.
Add that AF is a divisional game as well.
Still, the game got really close at some points where the Saints could have lost it. The dramatic ending was nice, exciting all because the Saints won and that ending was a game deciding ending.
If the Saints had lost , if the Fals had caught that endzone ball, the SD would have been like that year in the early 1980s's when the Saints won the game against L.A. Rams, so we all thought. When the the noise level was deafening and then in the last moment, some kind of way the L.A. Rams won. game over. Dead silence.

I think the Saints really have a lot of reviewing to tighten up some loose ends to be ready for Tampa Bay Bucks.

We are 8-6 against Tampa Bay since Sean Payton has been here. .500 against them prior to last year's 2 game sweep. So no, we haven't always "handled" Tampa Bay. The worst kind of losses are the one where people just sit there and think it's a gimme.

I sure as hell hope we don't bring this same type of mindset some of our fans have into the game. Underestimating your opponents thinking you're better than everyone else will come back and bite you in the ass. The Bucs have plenty of weapons... we need to be prepared.

OK well if you want to pull your Winnie The Pooh blankie up above your chin and be scared of the Buccaneers, be my guest. But recent history shows we have beaten them soundly whenever both teams were at full strength, and whenever we NEEDED to beat them. THOSE games are Saints blowouts. The handful of squeakers that the Bucs barely win, are NOT NORMAL GAMES, my friend. Usually they happen after the division has already been decided between us and the Falcons.

let's look at these 6 losses against Tampa Bay:

2012 - swept them (doesn't count, but still). One of them was 41-0, BLOWOUT. The other we won and led by at least a TD for most of the game.

2011 - 26-20, loss, but if you didn't notice, OUR COACH BROKE HIS FRICKIN' LEG in the middle of the 1st quarter. Kind of hard to game plan for that since it's only happened once in the history of the NFL. We throttled them 3 weeks later with playoffs/home field on the line and Payton back on crutches

2010 - won the first one 31-6, BLOWOUT, then lost the second in December 13-23. We HAD THE LEAD when Drew Brees and other starters got pulled in the 2nd half, to get ready for the playoffs! Last game of the year. We had clinched the playoffs against the Falcons the week before and by halftime the game had no impact on home field, so Payton pulled the starters. We lost. Oh, the humanity.

2009 - WON 38-7, BLOWOUT. Then we lost to them in overtime late in the year and everyone bawled their eyes out like the world had ended. Now I don't know about you but I was AT that game, and the 2nd half was the most BORING half of Sean Payton football I EVER saw .We had a lead, we had the playoffs in hand, it was obvious to everyone in the stadium that Payton slammed the playbook shut after halftime. He didn't bench Brees, but he put most of the stars on the bench, and was mostly just handing the ball off to 3rd string running back Lynell Hamilton over and over, a guy who barely saw the field in the other games. Again -- we lost, but this game DIDN'T MATTER, losing it didn't affect the playoff seeding, or home field, AT ALL, unless you're one of those people who believed in the "Tampa Bay curse."

2008 - we lost to them the second game, but we were 6-6 at that point, with no Deuce, not entirely sure what they were playing for, other than honor

2007 - the Bucs swept us in 2007, but unless you are really concerned about Jeff Garcia QBing for the Bucs and "Cadillac" Williams scoring on us, then it's not worth talking about. Plus we all know this was the young "pass happy" Payton.

I don't know how else to explain facts to you. NO ONE is under-estimating the Bucs. But some people are definitely over-estimating them, and under-estimating our own coaches and players.

I just showed you that HALF the 6 Sean Payton losses to the Buccaneers have either been with Saints starters pulled, or with our coach calling plays while lying in the locker room with his knee on ice. I just showed you that whenever both teams and both coaches line up at full strength and play, the Saints DOMINATE the series, and usually outscore the Bucs by 2 to 1. What is so difficult to understand about that.